thought of the day.308

Test of Faith. Proverbs

He that loves his children
A. nurtures them like a garden
B. beats them with a rod

To deliver a child’s soul from hell
A. pray for them
B. beat them with a rod

A child learns wisdom by being
A. taught well
B. beaten with a rod

Proverbs 13:24, 23:14, 29:15

“Punishment is embedded in most Christian theology. The threat of future and eternal punishment has provided the ineradicable core of violence, suffering, and pain that has perpetuated anxiety and fear in the minds of vast numbers of people throughout the world for two millenia. Although the Old Testament provides most of the verses and texts used to advocate the physical punishment of children, the New Testament Gospels and Epistles and the Book of Revelation provide the basis for terror contained in a single word: hell.…. Incalculable suffering and pain have been inflicted on children because of the belief in the physical reality of hell. Many Christians have heeded and acted upon the words of Proverbs 23:13-14: “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.” The threat of eternal punishment remains one of the greatest sources of anxiety and terror ever known, and must be recognized as a primary basis for the rationales for painful physical discipline and punishment advocated and practiced by so many Americans for centuries.

“Larry Christenson, whose book The Christian Family has sold more than a million copies throughout the world, observes in his chapter “God’s Order for Parents”: God holds you accountable for the discipline of your children. If you discipline and bring up your children according to his Word, you will have his approval and blessing. If you fail to do so, you will incur His wrath.

“Christenson also insists that “The Scriptural method of discipline is simple and unequivacal: the rod.”

“In recent years, however, Benjamin Spock has taken a clear public stand against the practice of corporal punishments. “I hope,” he wrote in 1988, “American parents can outgrow the conviction, which a majority have, that physical punishment is necessary to bring up well-behaved children.” In Dr. Spock on Parenting (1988), Spock acknowledges that:

“In earlier decades–and in earlier editions of Baby and Child Care–I avoided a flat statement of disapproval of physical punishment. I contented myself with the statement that I didn’t think it was necessary. This was because of my belief that it’s disturbing to parents when a professional person appears to imply that he knows better than they. What made me go against my own rule was my growing concern over the sky-high and ever-rising figures for murders within the family,
wife abuse, and child abuse in America, and our government’s enthusiasm for the nuclear arms race and for an aggressive foreign policy. It’s not that physical punishment creates these alarming conditions by itself, but it certainly plays a role in our acceptance of violence. If we are ever to turn toward a kindlier society and a safer world, a revulsion against the physical punishment of children would be a good place to start.”


~ Philip Greven, Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse, 1990